The Harmonized Savings Plan at BP Amoco
Brief description of case background
On August 11, 1998, United States Amoco Corporation (Amoco) and The British Petroleum Company p.l.c. (BPC) announced the BPC merger with Amoco. With a combined number of participants of 40,000 and $7 billion investment assets under management, the merged pension and savings plan of the new company is viewed by both management and employees as a bellwether of the success of the merger. Therefore, the new investment team must be able to “harmonize” the very different two original plans.
Comparison of the pre-merger plan offerings of BP America and Amoco
The Defined Contribution Plans offered at Amoco has an index-oriented, passive management nature. The plans,
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To keep the characteristics of the funds in line with the Amoco Core investment approach, the following dimensions are considered:
Best fit index of fund: S&P 500 (the index of the pre-merger Amoco equity investment)
Best fit Beta of fund: close to 1 (±10%)
Annualized 5-year rate of return: benchmark: 24.1%2, no less than 90% of benchmark
After applying the above criteria to the mutual funds listed in Exhibit 4 of the case document, the following funds are selected as recommendations: Columbia Growth, Fidelity, Fidelity Growth Company, Founders Growth, Invesco Blue Chip Growth, MSDW Instl Equity Growth A.
2. Index investment options
The index investment options for the new plan need to be in conformity with the Amoco core investment principle. Therefore, we have the following index investment recommendations for the Harmonized Savings Plan:
Balanced Index Fund-Moderate of State Street Global Advisors, with the same asset allocation as the Balanced Fund of the Amoco pre-merger plan.
International Equity Index Fund of State Street Global Advisors, with the same market index as that of the Amoco pre-merger plan.
Mid-Cap Equity Index Fund of State Street Global Advisors, with the same market index as that of the Amoco pre-merger plan.
Small-Cap Equity Index Fund of Deutsche Bank, with the same market index as that of the Amoco pre-merger plan.
Bond Index Fund of Deutsche Bank, with the same market index as that of the Amoco pre-merger plan.
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